NVP vProxy: DR NetWorker server/vCenter produces error "Waiting before reattempting to get Hypervisor environment, because last attempt was failed"

• NetWorker server is in a Disaster Recovery (DR) or offsite vault environment that does not have access to the source vCenter from which the VMs were backed up.
• The VM restores are performed to an alternate vCenter that the DR/vault NetWorker server has access to.
• The "Configure the Virtual Machine Recovery" window Errors out with "Waiting before reattempting to get Hypervisor environment, because last attempt was failed"

Figure 1: Waiting before reattempting to get Hypervisor environment, because last attempt was failed.

When you land on the "Configure the Virtual Machine Recovery" page, the NetWorker Management Console (NMC) has the source vCenter selected. This process sends a request to get the "vCenter View" to populate the datastores/folders for display. Since the source vCenter is not accessible to the DR/vault NetWorker server, this error is expected. The source vCenter must be retained as a NetWorker resource. Otherwise, it would not be available as a "source hypervisor" for selecting the VMs you want to recover.

Use the HTML based NetWorker Web User Interface (NWUI). This issue is not observed while performing VM restores using the NWUI.

This requires that the NWUI server package be installed and pointed to the NetWorker server performing this restore. The NWUI server package is included on the NetWorker Virtual Edition (NVE). It is included with the standard traditional server package downloads, but must be installed separately. Once installed the NWUI interface can be accessed from: https://networker-servername:9090/NWUI

The VM recover can be performed from the "Recover" tab in NWUI:

Figure 2: NetWorker Web User Interface showing VM recover wizard.

During the recovery configuration, you can select the alternate vCenter and file locations:

Figure 3: NWUI VM recover wizard, target vCenter selection.

The Monitoring tab shows the recovery progress:

Figure 4: NWUI restore monitoring.

There are new changes and feature enhancements with each major NetWorker release. The NWUI uses RESTAPI to GET and POST the needed info for the restore and does not invoke the same processes used by the NMC.

NetWorker Management Console (NMC) Workaround:
From the "Browse the vCenter server to select a recovery location," switch between the "source" and wanted vCenter location. This must be repeated multiple times on each restore. The NMC eventually populates the datastore/location dropdowns with information from the wanted "alternate" vCenter, and the restore can be proceeded. NetWorker Request For Enhancement (RFE) NW-I-2346 was opened with request to change VM recover wizard functionality so that only the target vCenter is inventoried during VM recover operation. If you would like to track this RFE, engage your Dell Account Manager/Sales representative with RFE number NW-I-2346.